During a surgical operation, surgical Instruments may be transferred between, for example, a surgeon and scrub nurse or other assistant. The surgical instruments may be transferred from hand to hand. A drawback of transferring surgical instruments from hand to hand includes the potential for injury of surgeons and/or surgical assistants, as surgical instruments are often sharp, and the attention of the surgeon and surgical assistants may be directed to the patient undergoing surgery, instead of their own personal protection from injury. Sharp instruments not only pose a risk of wounding medical professionals, but also the risk of spreading blood borne infectious diseases, such as where the instrument is contaminated with blood during a surgical procedure.
Attempts have been made to improve the safety of surgical procedures such that surgeons and their surgical assistants do not need to exchange surgical instruments directly by hand. One solution is to use a “transfer tray” (also called “passing tray”). When a transfer tray is available, an individual can place a sharp instrument into the transfer tray, and the transfer tray is either held in proximity to a second person, or placed on a surface in proximity to the second person. The second person can then reach into the transfer tray and pick up the medical instrument by hand.
One drawback of conventional transfer trays is that the trays do not always shield or cover the blades or sharp portions of surgical instruments, leaving the blades or sharp portions exposed during transfer. Some passing trays lack a cover or barrier preventing surgical participants from accidentally contacting sharp areas of surgical instruments while the surgical instruments are within or on top of the transfer trays. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,179,975 discloses a surgical instrument passing tray into which a surgical instrument, such as a suture holder or scalpel, can be placed. Suture holders are placed in the tray more or less parallel to the longitudinal axis or long dimension of the tray. No barrier or cover is provided to shield a surgical participant's extremities from the sharp end of a suture needle held by the suture holder. Scalpels are placed in the tray more or less perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis or long dimension of the tray. The blade end of the scalpel projects laterally from the tray in an exposed position. Such an arrangement fails to cover or shield a surgical participant's extremities from the sharp blade of the scalpel, thereby providing significant opportunity for injury.
Another drawback of conventional transfer trays is that the trays cannot hold more than one surgical instrument at a time, with each instrument being shielded appropriately to prevent risk of injury. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,179,975 can hold either a suture holder in the tray, or hold a scalpel in the tray, but not both at the same time in a secure manner. Even if a user somehow balances both a suture holder and scalpel on top of the tray, the two instruments are not securely retained in recesses that shield the sharp areas of the instruments from a user's extremities.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,655 discloses another example of a surgical tray for transferring sharp instruments. As with the previous example, this tray is not capable of holding both a scalpel and a suture holder in a secure manner at the same time. Instead, each Instrument is held in a separate tray, so that two trays are required to hold the instruments. The trays are arranged in a side-by-side configuration, which can be undesirable because the two trays occupy a significant amount of space on the operating table.
Still another drawback of conventional transfer trays are improperly sized compartments that do not shield sharp instruments effectively. This problem can be seen in trays that are designed in a “one-size-fits-all” approach. For example, the tray described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,655 includes a large recess, referred to as a “protective valley”, which is designed to receive the distal end of a suture needle holder containing a suture needle. The protective valley appears sufficiently long and wide to accommodate suture needle holders and needles of various lengths and sizes, in a “one-size-fits-all” approach. However, the protective valley is as large as, or almost as large as, a midsection opening where the user reaches into the tray to pick up the instrument. This is undesirable because an inattentive user can inadvertently reach into the large protective valley to grab the instrument, rather than the midsection opening, and become injured by the needle. Therefore, a one-size-fits all approach to accommodate instruments and needles of different sizes creates the unintended and dangerous result of sacrificing user safety.